A necktie should have certain features for appealing to the purchasing public. In addition to exterior colors and design, it should have a certain body and feel, and resist creasing, cupping and other unsightly characteristics when worn.
Conventionally, neckties comprise two basic members, an outer casing and an interliner. As far as the outer casing is concerned, most four-in-hand ties now being made are produced from woven and/or knitted materials that are cut on the bias, although the cutting on the bias is not necessary. These ties are often made in one piece, two piece, or three piece configurations. The one piece construction is in limited use, but is sometimes used to accommodate the width of the outer material employed for the tie. The three piece construction is perhaps the most important and most widely used variety.
Most such ties have a tipping, pocket or facing, which is a piece of material sewn to the back of the tie casing, either on the wide end of the tie or at the narrow end thereof, or both. This is done to give the tie a more luxurious appearance. Any of the three names, tipping, pocket or facing are used to describe this feature.
The interliner portion of the tie is disposed between the outer casing and the tipping to lend support, weight and feel to the tie. The interliner also adds life to the tie by preventing its casing from being unduly distorted or twisted in use. The materials used for the tie interliner usually comprise a woven fabric made from synthetic fibers, or a combination of synthetic and wool fibers, although knitted and non-Woven fabric have also been used to some extent.
It has long been conventional to employ as a tie interliner either a single layer of fabric, which is attached to the inside of the tie and extends from one side thereof to the other, double layers of fabric, or a single layer of fabric with a tape having a width of about one inch secured thereto. The single layer interliners have been used to provide support and weight to the tie. However, these interliners generally do not provide the desired feel. As a result, interliners having a double layer construction were introduced. Examples of double interliners are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,426,360. These double layer interliners include one layer of lining for support and one layer of lining for feel, with the two layers together providing the requisite weight. Among the drawbacks of the double layer interliners is that they generally are expensive to make. Furthermore, the weight of the interliner must vary in accordance with the weight of the outer casing. Whenever a light outer material is used for a tie, or the tie casing, the tie interliner must be heavier; and conversely, when a heavy material is used for the outer casing, a lighter weight lining should be employed. In recent years, necktie outer casings have been made of lighter material. However, when these light weight outer casings are provided with double interlinings to provide the tie with sufficient support, and the desired weight and feel, the heavy interlining is readily felt through the outer casing made from the lighter material. This detracts from the quality of the "hand" of the tie because one feels the roughness of the interliner instead of the soft texture of the outer casing.
The interliner comprising a single lining with a tape of about one inch width secured thereto also has certain drawbacks. The tape, is used as a relatively inexpensive alternative to add weight to the tie. However, the tape detracts from the feel of the tie and renders the tie susceptible to creasing. Further, it is difficult to slide the knot along the tape.
Further drawbacks of prior art interliners include their inability to resist "cupping". Cupping is the formation of a longitudinal U-shape in the tie when the tie is pulled in the longitudinal direction, i.e., when the tie is placed under tension. Generally, an interliner woven in a conventional manner includes warp and/or filling yarns having a uniform twist direction will not resist cupping.
Finally, the fabric from which the interliners are made is usually cut on the bias so that it will be more resilient, or have more self-contained stretch or elongation in its longitudinal direction, than fabric which is cut straight. However, existing interliner configurations, even if cut along the bias, do not always provide the tie with sufficient stretch resistance to have the tie return to its original length after being pulled in the longitudinal direction.
Therefore, there is a need to provide an interliner construction that prevents cupping, and provides crease resistance, a soft hand and other characteristics desirable to the purchaser. As the interliner can be a significant portion to the cost of a tie, there is also a need to provide these characteristics in an interliner having a single layer construction.